Versify - Poetry and English Literature
Jun 1, 2026 · 1 hr 26 min · 10 segments
Send us Fan Mail Three poems by US poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Conrad Aiken (1889-1973) Support the show
No entities detected.
Shall we do the quiz?
Well, in the mid-thirties, America, or the Library of Congress, began to appoint for a two-year term a kind of resident consultant poet.
And latterly, they renamed it the Poet Laureate.
So, these are people who are American Poet Laureates.
Right.
If they weren't, if they were before, because it used to be called something like Consultant Poet to the Library of Congress.
Currently, you get $60,000 a year, I think.
Which is quite good.
Because I think if you're the British Poet Laureate, you don't get anything.
Or you get, don't you get maybe like 40 bottles of sack or something?
You can graze your sheep on London Bridge, doesn't it? Yes, yes, yes.
So, going back to the first, I'll tell you the first one, you've probably never heard of it, I certainly haven't.
The first one did a four-year term.
Joseph Auslander.
But after that, they are two-year terms.
I will tell you that Conrad Aiken held this laureateship 1950-52.
Can you name anyone else? Frost.
Frost is a great answer.
Do you want to say when? It could have been any time, couldn't it?
It could have been any time.
Do you want to go for a punt? Yeah, I'm going to say 36-38.
But it could have been like 50-50.
You're not paying
attention because I just told you the first one was 37-41.
It was Joseph Auslander.
Shall we do the quiz?
Well, in the mid-thirties, America, or the Library of Congress, began to appoint for a two-year term a kind of resident consultant poet.
And latterly, they renamed it the Poet Laureate.
So, these are people who are American Poet Laureates.
Right.
If they weren't, if they were before, because it used to be called something like Consultant Poet to the Library of Congress.
Currently, you get $60,000 a year, I think.
Which is quite good.
Because I think if you're the British Poet Laureate, you don't get anything.
Or you get, don't you get maybe like 40 bottles of sack or something?
You can graze your sheep on London Bridge, doesn't it? Yes, yes, yes.
So, going back to the first, I'll tell you the first one, you've probably never heard of it, I certainly haven't.
The first one did a four-year term.
Joseph Auslander.
But after that, they are two-year terms.
I will tell you that Conrad Aiken held this laureateship 1950-52.
Can you name anyone else? Frost.
Frost is a great answer.
Do you want to say when? It could have been any time, couldn't it?
It could have been any time.
Do you want to go for a punt? Yeah, I'm going to say 36-38.
But it could have been like 50-50.
You're not paying
attention because I just told you the first one was 37-41.
It was Joseph Auslander.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.